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Finland national speedway team
Finnish national motorcycle speedway team
Finnish national motorcycle speedway team
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Finland |
| image | Flag_of_Finland.svg |
| image size | 120px |
| association | Finnish Motorcycling Federation |
| Suomen Moottoriliitto r.y. | |
| fim code | SML |
| colour | White and Blue |
| swcwins | 0 |
Suomen Moottoriliitto r.y.
The Finnish national speedway team are one of the teams that compete in international team motorcycle speedway.
History
The Finnish speedway team competed in the inaugural Speedway World Team Cup in 1960, finishing fourth in the Scandinavian round at Odense, Denmark. The team consisted of Kalevi Lahtinen, Antti Pajari, Timo Laine, Valle Seliverstov and Aulis Lethonen.
From 1960 to 1985, the team failed to progress from their qualifying group for the World Cup, due to the fact that they were drawn together in qualifying with two of the world's strongest speedway nations, Denmark and Sweden. The system changed in 1986 but it was not until the 1990 Speedway World Team Cup that the team progressed from qualifying to round two. The team reached the final of the Speedway World Pairs Championship six times, in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1987 and 1989.
The team reached the World Cup race-off (the round before the final) in 2002 and 2003 but experienced an inert period for nearly two decades. However, an improvement ensued when Finland reached the final of the 2022 Speedway of Nations and they won their first medal when they won the bronze at the 2023 European Pairs Speedway Championship.
Major tournament finals
Speedway of Nations
| Year | Venue | Standings (Pts) | Riders | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | DEN | |||
| Vojens | ||||
| Vojens Speedway Center | 1. AUS Australia (30+6+7) | |||
| 2. GBR Great Britain (32+2) | ||||
| 3. SWE Sweden (30+3) | ||||
| 4. DEN Denmark (28) | ||||
| 5. CZE Czech Republic (27) | ||||
| 6. POL Poland (26) | ||||
| 7. FIN Finland (16) | Timo Lahti | 14 | ||
| Jesse Mustonen | 2 | |||
| Timi Salonen | 0 |
World Pairs Championship
| Year | Venue | Standings (Pts) | Riders | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | ENG | |||
| Manchester | ||||
| Hyde Road | 1. ENG England (28) | |||
| 2. SWE Sweden (18) | ||||
| 3. FRG West Germany (18) | ||||
| 4. CZE Czechoslovakia (17) | ||||
| 5. NZL New Zealand (17) | ||||
| 6. FIN Finland (14) | ||||
| 7. AUS Australia (12) | Ila Teromaa | 7 | ||
| Kai Niemi | 7 | |||
| 1979 | DEN | |||
| Vojens | ||||
| Vojens Speedway Center | 1. DEN Denmark (25) | |||
| 2. ENG England (24) | ||||
| 3. POL Poland (20) | ||||
| 4. AUS Australia (19) | ||||
| 5. USA United States (14) | ||||
| 6. NZL New Zealand (12) | ||||
| 7. FIN Finland (7) | Kai Niemi | 7 | ||
| Ila Teromaa | 0 | |||
| 1980 | YUG | |||
| Krsko | ||||
| Matija Gubec Stadium | 1. ENG England (29) | |||
| 2. POL Poland (22) | ||||
| 3. DEN Denmark (21) | ||||
| 4. SWE Sweden (18) | ||||
| 5. NZL New Zealand (16) | ||||
| 6. FIN Finland (14) | ||||
| 7. YUG Yugoslavia (6) | Ila Teromaa | 8 | ||
| Kai Niemi | 6 | |||
| 1982 | AUS | |||
| Sydney | ||||
| Liverpool Speedway | 1. USA United States (30) | |||
| 2. ENG England (22) | ||||
| 3. DEN Denmark (21) | ||||
| 4. AUS Australia (16) | ||||
| 5. FIN Finland (16) | ||||
| 6. NZL New Zealand (13) | ||||
| 7. CZE Czechoslovakia (8) | Kai Niemi | 12 | ||
| Ari Koponen | 4 | |||
| 1987 | CZE | |||
| Pardubice | ||||
| Svítkov Stadion | 1. DEN Denmark (52) | |||
| 2. ENG England (44) | ||||
| 3. USA United States (36) | ||||
| 4. NZL New Zealand (36) | ||||
| 5. CZE Czechoslovakia (30) | ||||
| 6. FIN Finland (19) | ||||
| 7. AUS Australia (21) | ||||
| 8. ITA Italy (19) | ||||
| 9. POL Poland (14) | Olli Tyrväinen | 11 | ||
| Kai Niemi | 8 | |||
| 1989 | POL | |||
| Leszno | ||||
| Alfred Smoczyk Stadium | 1. DEN Denmark (48) | |||
| 2. SWE Sweden (44) | ||||
| 3. ENG England (37) | ||||
| 4. FRG West Germany (36) | ||||
| 5. FIN Finland (31) | ||||
| 6. HUN Hungary (22) | ||||
| 7. CZE Czechoslovakia (25) | ||||
| 8. ITA Italy (15) | ||||
| 9. POL Poland (11) | Kai Niemi | 18 | ||
| Olli Tyrväinen | 13 |
International caps (as of 2022)
Since the advent of the Speedway Grand Prix era, international caps earned by riders are largely restricted to international competitions, whereas previously test matches between two teams were a regular occurrence. This means that the number of caps earned by a rider has decreased in the modern era.
| Rider | Caps |
|---|---|
| Aarnio, Tero | 7 |
| Hautamäki, Pekka | 7 |
| Helminen, Markku | 3 |
| Katajisto, Kalle | 3 |
| Kokko, Petri | 3 |
| Koponen, Ari | 17 |
| Lahti, Timo | 3 |
| Laukkanen, Kai | 15 |
| Mäkinen, Jari | 1 |
| Makinen, Rauli | 2 |
| Niemi, Kai | 22 |
| Nieminen, Kauko | 18 |
| Olin, Matti | 7 |
| Pajari, Antti | 14 |
| Pellinen, Mika | 4 |
| Reima, Tomi | 13 |
| Teromaa, Ila | 8 |
| Teromaa, Pepe | 3 |
| Tuoriniemi, Veijo | 3 |
| Tyrväinen, Olli | 19 |
| Ylinen, Vesa | 14 |
References
References
- Rogers, Martin. (1978). "The Illustrated History of Speedway". Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd.
- Bott, Richard. (1980). "The Peter Collins Speedway Book No.4". Stanley Paul & Co Ltd.
- Oakes, Peter. (1981). "1981 Speedway Yearbook". Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd.
- "FIM SPEEDWAY WORLD CUP/ SPEEDWAY OF NATIONS".
- Matthews/Morrison, Peter/Ian. (1987). "The Guinness Encyclopaedia of Sports Records and Results". Guinness Superlatives.
- . (23 July 2022). "Speedway of Nations Preview".
- (2 October 2023). "European Pairs Speedway Championship: Team Poland grabs the title at home".
- "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022".
This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.
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